The Battle of Hastings

by Jim Bradbury

  A test of the powers of the king and Earl Godwin came when the archbishopric of Canterbury fell vacant on the death of Archbishop Eadsige in 1050. Godwin supported a relative, Aelric, for the post, but Edward favoured the Norman, Robert of Jumièges, already appointed Bishop of London with his backing. In 1051 Robert became archbishop and, in the conflicts which followed, was loyal to Edward against the Godwin family. The writer of the Vita suggests that English clerics also resented the appointment, and protested against it.10 Other Normans were given bishoprics, at Dorchester and London, and other continentals won favour.

  A second cause of conflict between the Wessex family and the king came over the king’s favour to Eustace of Boulogne. Some historians suggest that Edward, now well established, brought on the break with the Godwins deliberately.11 The political links between the powers in north-west Europe at this time form a vital background to events. Political alliances and hostilities between France, Scandinavia, Flanders, Normandy, Boulogne and England governed much that occurred.

  In some ways Edward had reason to fear Flanders more than Normandy in the early period of his reign. He certainly paid heed to links with those who might help to counter the power of Flanders. In the clash between Baldwin V and the German Emperor, Edward sided with the Emperor. Edward kept connections with others who might be useful against Flanders, such as the counts of Ponthieu and Mantes, and not least with Eustace II, count of Boulogne, whose first wife was Edward’s widowed sister Godgifu, and who visited Edward in England in 1051.

  On his way home Eustace intended to pass through Dover. It may be that Edward meant to make a grant of Dover to Eustace. At any rate, when Eustace came there, apparently looking for somewhere to sleep, he was involved in a brawl with the townsmen. Eustace’s men, according to one version of the incident, ‘killed a certain man of the town, and another of the townsmen killed their comrades, so that seven of his comrades were struck down. And great damage was done on either side with horses and with weapons.’ Another version says that twenty men were killed.12 Dover lay within the earldom of Godwin, and Edward ordered his earl to punish the town by ravaging. Godwin’s sympathies clearly lay with the town and he refused. Edward called a council at Gloucester at which Robert of Jumièges put the case against Godwin and even accused him of plotting to kill the king.

  The simmering resentment between earl and king now came to a head. Godwin assembled a force, but found that opposition to a crowned king was not easy. The king, probably encouraged by the archbishop, wanted a trial of Godwin and his sons to be held in London, for the earlier killing of the king’s brother Alfred, while the pardoned Sweyn Godwinson was outlawed once more.

  Ralph of Mantes and many thegns rallied to the king’s cause. A sarcastic message was sent to Godwin that he would be pardoned if he could restore to life Edward’s murdered brother Alfred. The Vita suggests that it was Archbishop Robert who persuaded the king that Godwin would attack him ‘as once upon a time he had attacked his brother’.13 Godwin’s own people hesitated to use force against their monarch, showing that this incident had not been forgotten. The king also got the support of the northern earls, Leofric of Mercia and Siward of Northumbria.

  Godwin backed down. When he received the message about Alfred he was dining. He ‘pushed away the table in front of him’, realising that his position was impossible.14 He and his family fled that night, riding to his manor at Bosham, and sailing into exile. His sons Harold and Leofwin made for Bristol, and took ship for Ireland. Godwin himself and most of the family left for Flanders, whose count, Baldwin V, as we have seen was generally hostile to King Edward. The Godwin family had close connections with Flanders, and at about this time Godwin’s son Tostig married Judith, half-sister to the count.

  A royal council declared the whole family outlawed. Some of the Godwin lands were granted out to royal favourites, including Edward’s nephew Earl Ralph, known as ‘timid’, and Archbishop Robert.15 Godwin’s daughter, Queen Edith, was sent to a nunnery. Edward had attempted to throw off the hold of the Godwin family, but as a permanent move it proved more than he could manage.

  Edward had shown sufficient strength to force the whole Godwin family into exile, but he lacked the power to keep them there. Within a year, in 1052, Godwin was able to return with a force partly supplied by the count of Flanders. Feeling in England had not been united against Godwin and his family. Some whispered against Godwin, ‘the malice of evil men had shut up the merciful ears of the king’, but others sympathised, and few were prepared to take arms against him. Harold meanwhile, also with an armed force, had sailed from Ireland and finally joined up with his father on the south coast. The Godwins advanced on London, and two armies faced each other across the Thames. Stigand negotiated on behalf of the Godwins.

  Now Godwin had his revenge, and forced the king’s hand so that he ‘outlawed all the Frenchmen who had promoted injustices and passed unjust judgements and given bad counsel’.16 The earl was insistent that Archbishop Robert give up Canterbury and leave the country, along with a number of Edward’s foreign courtiers. Robert went to Rome to protest, but finally returned to his abbey at Jumièges where he died. The archbishop was replaced at Canterbury by Stigand, bishop of Winchester, at the heart of Godwin’s Wessex. One writer thought that Stigand had ‘deceived the innocent simplicity of King Edward’.17 Leofric’s son Aelfgar had been given East Anglia but now Harold Godwinson was able to recover it as his earldom.

  The Godwins were restored in full: the father to Wessex, the sons to their earldoms, Edith to court, ‘brought back to the king’s bedchamber’.18 Only Sweyn was missing, and that was probably a blessing. He had set off for the Holy Land, no doubt seeking the divine pardon he richly needed. He was to die at Constantinople on his return.

  At Easter 1053, Earl Godwin suffered a sudden stroke at dinner with the king, and ‘suddenly sank towards the foot-stool, bereft of speech and of all his strength’. He was carried by his sons to the royal chamber, dying a few days later ‘in wretched pain’. The death of Godwin did not lessen the family’s influence. Harold Godwinson ‘wielded his father’s powers even more actively, and walked in his ways, that is, in patience and mercy and with kindness to men of good will’.19 Harold succeeded him as earl of Wessex, and a younger brother succeeded Harold. When Siward of Northumbria died in 1055 that earldom also went to the Godwin family, to another of Godwin’s sons, Tostig. However, southern insertions in the northern earldoms were not popular, and Tostig found it difficult to establish himself. But it meant that only one earldom, Mercia, was not held by a Godwinson.

  Edward the Confessor had some success as a British ruler. The Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore, came to his court and recognised English overlordship. He married Margaret, the daughter of Edward the Exile, who was the son of Edmund Ironside. There were also successful military expeditions against the Welsh, where Harold Godwinson, described as ‘strong and warlike’, laid the foundations for the later Norman advances with a raid into Wales first in 1055.

  There is a story that when Edward met Gruffydd, the Welsh prince carried him on his shoulders as a mark of humility, and like the Scots king recognised his lordship.20 But later Gruffydd raided into Mercia, and Harold, ‘the vigorous earl of the West Saxons’, was again sent with an army against him in 1063.21 On the second invasion Harold and his brother Tostig led separate forces into Wales. Harold burned the Welsh prince’s palace and set fire to his ships. The Welsh submitted but Gruffydd escaped by sea. However, his own people murdered him in Snowdonia, and brought his head to Harold, who sent the gory trophy of his triumph on to Edward.

  Gruffydd’s brothers swore fealty both to King Edward and to Harold. They divided up their brother’s lands between them. Harold ordered the construction of ‘a large building’ at Portskewet (Monmouthshire) in 1065. It would be interesting to know exactly what sort of structure this was and whether it was fortified in any way. It was used to store food and drink, and as a base for the English. But the precarious positio
n of the invaders was soon demonstrated when the Welsh prince Caradoc attacked the new building, killed the ‘labourers’ and took the stores. This suggests that it was unfinished.22

  The unity of the Godwin family did not endure to the end of Edward’s reign. There was rebellion in Northumbria against Tostig at the end of 1065, partly caused by his attempts to tax the earldom with ‘a large tribute’, and for what some saw as his ‘iniquitous rule’, but it was mainly a chance to demonstrate the latent hostility towards him. It was also claimed that he robbed the church and took land. The comment of the Vita blames both earl and subjects: he ‘had repressed with the heavy yoke of his rule because of their misdeeds’.23 In October, with Tostig at the king’s court, Northumbrian rebels led by thegns attacked his men in York, killing two hundred, including his Danish housecarls Amund and Ravenswart, and seizing his treasure.24

  The Northumbrians invited Morcar, the younger son of Aelfgar, whose brother Edwin was earl of Mercia, to be their earl, and virtually everyone bar Tostig was prepared to accept the change.25 It seems likely that his brother Harold thought that Tostig had brought the rebellion on his own head, and believed that restoration was either not possible or not wise. He gave his brother no support. As a result, Tostig became enraged at his brother and did all in his power to oppose his interests; he even accused Harold of being involved in the rebellion against him. This rift in the Godwinson family probably did as much as anything to undermine Harold’s position in the long run. It was the division which gave William of Normandy his chance and made the Norman Conquest possible.

  Harold and his brother Tostig were a striking pair, and caught the attention of contemporaries: ‘distinctly handsome and graceful persons, similar in strength … equally brave’.26 They were even described as ‘the kingdom’s sacred oaks, two Hercules’. Harold was depicted as taller, more open, more cheerful, more intelligent; Tostig as quicker to act, more determined, more secretive and more inflexible.27

  How far Tostig’s failure in Northumbria was his own fault is difficult to say. It seems that he did try to introduce southern laws and to impose heavy taxation. Whether he was too harsh is hard to judge. He was accused of three killings, two of men under safe-conduct. However, they might have been involved in a conspiracy against him.28 It may be simply that the imposition of this representative of the leading southern family was unpalatable to the northerners, however able he might be. He did retain power in Northumbria for a decade.

  It is also difficult for us to judge Harold’s attitude to his brother. One might have expected more aid than Harold gave. But we cannot know if he believed his brother’s fall was his own fault and his brother not worth aiding, or if politically it was unwise to make such a move, or if already there was little brotherly love between them. One source suggests that Edward’s advisers believed Tostig to be at fault. There is some evidence that Edward preferred Tostig to his brother and was upset by his downfall, which further fuels the idea that Tostig was at fault, since Edward made no move to reimpose him.29

  It is not clear that anyone had the power to restore Tostig in Northumbria. What is certain is that after Tostig’s deposition and his brother’s failure to assist him to recover the earldom, he became thoroughly hostile to Harold. It seems likely that Queen Edith, who also favoured Tostig rather than Harold, and who may have influenced her husband’s attitude, thought Harold was at fault in the affair and became cool towards him. Her attitude is revealed by the Vita, in which it has been suggested that Tostig ‘is the real hero of the story’.30

  The fate of the English kingdom became increasingly open to question in the 1060s. Edward had no heir and seemed now unlikely to produce one. From the several claims made later it would appear that Edward promised the succession to a number of people. It is possible that they invented this later, but it seems more likely that Edward used the succession as elderly modern patriarchs brandish their wills over their heirs. It is likely that he favoured a different heir at different times through the reign. Among those given promises were William of Normandy, Sweyn of Denmark and Harold Godwinson.

  Edward also thought about another possible successor, with a better claim by descent than any of those already mentioned, and who might also have been given private assurances about the throne. This was Edward the Exile. The Confessor made contact with Edward the Exile through the German Emperor Henry III, and invited him to come to England: ‘for the king had decided that he should be established as his heir and successor to the realm’. The Exile would hardly have made all the effort to come had he not been given some indication of the likely consequence. But having arrived in England in 1057, Edward the Exile died in London. He did not even get to see his relative the king, and was buried at St Paul’s.

  In 1064 Edward the Confessor seems to have sent Harold Godwinson to Normandy. We shall look at the details of this expedition in the next chapter, but we need to consider its significance briefly. It is uncertain what was the purpose of the visit, and the main evidence for it comes from Norman sources. It is unlikely that Harold carried a promise of the throne to William, but the wily Edward may have seen the humour of the situation as the two potential rivals eyed each other up.

  The chief puzzle of the situation is to see Harold’s motives for going. One can hardly envisage the Confessor being able to order his premier earl to go on an expedition of this kind, though at this juncture we should not necessarily believe Harold hostile to the duke. It is more likely that Harold saw his status as a kind of ambassador, concerned about the fate of two relatives who were currently held as hostages by the duke. It may indeed have been primarily a goodwill mission to keep warm the friendship between the two powers.

  The events of the trip certainly increased its significance and gave William a new lever, albeit through some rather underhanded action to force an oath out of Harold. We may believe that when Harold left Normandy, both he and his rival had their own views about how they would act when the English king died. They each had new cause to respect the abilities of a rival seen close up. Events were to catch up on them, perhaps more quickly than they expected. Edward became ill in 1065 and died at the very beginning of the new year. The future of the English crown seemed uncertain.

  Notes

  1. F. Barlow (ed.), Vita Aedwardi Regis, 2nd edn, Oxford, 1992, p. 19.

  2. Barlow, Edward, pp. 70–1; Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 42.

  3. John in Campbell (ed.), Anglo-Saxons, p. 221, from F. Maitland.

  4. Barlow, Edward, p. 74.

  5. Barlow, Edward, p. 39.

  6. Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 8.

  7. Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 44.

  8. Barlow, Edward, pp. 81–4, 130; Barlow (ed.), Vita, pp. 14, 24, 90, 92.

  9. Whitelock et al. (eds), Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1043, p. 107; Cubbins (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 67.

  10. Barlow (ed.), Vita, pp. 28–30.

  11. Barlow, Edward, p. 97: Edward ‘provoked Godwin beyond endurance’.

  12. Whitelock et al. (eds), Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1051, pp. 117, 118.

  13. Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 32.

  14. Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 36.

  15. John of Worcester, eds Darlington and McGurk, p. 576: ‘timidus dux Rauulfus’.

  16. Whitelock et al. (eds), Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 124; Cubbins (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 73.

  17. John of Worcester, eds Darlington and McGurk, p. 572.

  18. Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 44.

  19. Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 46; John of Worcester, eds Darlington and McGurk, p. 572.

  20. Barlow, Edward, p. 208; John of Worcester, eds Darlington and McGurk, p. 578.

  21. John of Worcester, eds Darlington and McGurk, p. 592.

  22. John of Worcester, eds Darlington and McGurk, p. 596.

  23. Whitelock et al. (eds), Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1065, p. 138; Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 76; John of Worcester, eds Darlington and McGurk, p. 598.

  24. John of Worcester, eds Darlington and McGurk, p. 598.

&nb
sp; 25. Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 78.

  26. Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 48.

  27. Barlow, Edward, pp. 195, 198; Vita, pp. 48–50, 58.

  28. Barlow, Edward, p. 235.

  29. Barlow, Edward, p. 239, Barlow (ed.), Vita, p. 78.

  30. Barlow, Edward, p. 298.

  THREE

  NORMANDY BEFORE 1066

  In the first two chapters we have reviewed, along with the earlier history of England, reasons why England might be invaded in 1066: in brief, the attraction of a wealthy land, together with the hope of success against a divided and unstable state. Now we need to consider, along with Normandy’s earlier history, how the ruler of that duchy was able to invade in 1066. This is an important consideration, for it is probably true that before 1066 such a venture would not have been viable.

  Under the early rulers, from about 911 to 1026, Normandy grew into its recognised boundaries, and the interest of its rulers was inevitably upon this internal growth. Normandy then underwent a period of troubles, under Richard III (1026–7) and Robert I (1027–35), lasting through the minority of William the Conqueror. Only by about 1047 was the Conqueror really safe in his own duchy.

  There then followed a period when his main task was to deal with enemies and rivals in France. He could not possibly have invaded England, and left Normandy open to invasion from the Capetian monarch or the count of Anjou. Only with the deaths of his main enemies on the continent, in 1060, was William relatively free to contemplate some broader project.